PATTERNED TILE

Another trend lately has been the resurgence of patterned tile. Once again, this is a trend that draws from old-world Europe but that has been reintroduced in a much edgier interpretation. 

Naturally, I drift toward the examples in black, grey and white:

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But this is a great way to introduce some funk and colour to your floors for those who may be more adventurous:

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(*You will note the frequent use of floor-to-ceiling subway tile in some of the included examples. Killing two trends with one stone!)

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This effect so strongly reminds me of a beautiful grande maison I lived in for a few weeks in France when I was younger. The foyer had this beautiful "tumbling block" tile pattern, similar to what is shown below but instead was black and burnt yellow.

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Tumbling block is a timeless pattern seen on endless materials with many adaptions, that also looks stunning when laid out on the floor in tile:

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I mean damn. That last image says it all. This, to me, represents the best kind of "Euro" - think moreso 60's Italy than, say, Romanian techno music or "guido". 

The natural place to test the waters with this look would be a bathroom; ideally a tiled room which often has a smaller square footage and could therefore justify a more dramatic pattern. 

Would you be brave enough to try it in a larger space like above?

bZd

THE WANT: WOOL BLANKETS

With the bitter cold setting in fast, I've been hopelessly wrapping myself in whatever I can find around the house in a losing battle against the draughty windows of our ghetto apartment building. 

Luckily, I have recently spotted the remedy to my dilemma that will inject this place with a much-need dose of style goddammit. 

Relish in the following and tell me you wouldn't want to get cozy with any of these: 

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The above are all made by Coyuchi, a company based out of California specializing in organic textiles. An enlightening quote from the product page for their wool blankets explains:  

"Sheep pastured in the cool mists of Canada produce the dense, cozy wool that's used to weave this blanket." 

Right.

I'm not sure what kind of effect these Californians think the "cool mists of Canada" have on anything, but it has been my experience that they result in nothing other than dampness and a longing to live anywhere but Canada.

West Elm has also paired up with Faribault Woolen Mill Co. and is selling their equally dreamy blankets and pillows.  

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Faribault doesn't offer any whimsical imagery, but they do make some pretty badass military-inspired blankets.

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I'm so into all of these options and am also in the market for a new bedspread. Alas, these blankets aren't exactly inexpensive but I have found something from IKEA that provides a similar stripe-y aesthetic to the striped blankets above:

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The BJORNLOKA bedspread is a bit more within budget, and still provides that simple, minimal, graphic look.

What do you think? I am going to start paying a bit more attention to my bedroom situation and I think this is a great starting point. With Christmas around the corner maybe you too could come into some striped blanket swankiness. 

But only if you're nice. 

bZd 

COLOUR WATCH: DARK OLIVE

While reading in the October issue of Lonny Magazine about Kristen Cunningham and Scott Jarrell's loft (which EVERYONE should check out here), I was really inspired by the colour palette of everything they have curated in their space. Blacks, whites, browns, and Kristen even mentioned they have painted most of their doors in dark olive. 

Dark olive naturally lends itself to a vintage, military and industrial vibe that brings automatic cool to anywhere you can find it. 

I present the following:

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I think that leaning more towards "dark" than "olive" is key as well - a pale olive bordering on avocado just brings the wrong kind of vintage feel (more hippy, trippy, and bad 70's which just isn't the look).

So, we welcome dark olive (also delightfully referred to as olive drab) to our extremely low-variety yet incredibly high-taste arsenal of acceptable colours along with black, white, brown, and brass.  

What do you think of olive this? Terrible. -__-

bZd

FLOOR TO CEILING SUBWAY TILE

Listen here, BUD.

I'm not gonna pretend to tell you that subway tiles are anything new or exciting. One thing I have been noticing a lot lately, however, is the twist of taking them from floor to ceiling up an entire wall. 

A good ol' Google search of "Victorian Industrial" a while back (another popular trend - think Edison lightbulbs, raw wood and black metal) brought me upon this inspiring image:

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Very 'Downton Abbey'. 

And while dining out at Bent Restaurant in Toronto, I noticed something similar here as well:

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This picture isn't a great example, but they too ran white subway tile from floor to ceiling. 

Further Googling led me to the following inspiring imagery to share with all of you, to prove how cool a treatment I think this is.

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(HGTV designer Tommy Smythe's kitchen)

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(This time in black!)

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(Love the textured tile here)

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(Really dig the sort of varsity-style stripes)

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If you have the time or care enough to go back and review the above images, you may/may not notice that some examples have been finished with dark grout for higher contrast and an edgier vibe. 

Grout can be tinted a number of colours, and going dark in the first place can add life and longevity to your tiled look as it will conceal dirt and grime much better.

What do you think? Too much of a good thing? For some reason, I think it brings an old world feel, but seems altogether new and current. 

So, are you a tile-o-phile? 

bZd